Chapter 882: Dong Zhi Chao Is Unwilling to Accept Defeat; Can He Achieve Dimensional Ascension?

Facing Dong Zhi Chao, who forced a smile onto his face, Li Long spread his hands and said:

"Manager Dong, I'm not lying to you; all forty tons of seedless melon seeds were sold to Manager Bai. I don't have a single item of stock left here."

Dong Zhi Chao and Bai Lanlan arrived in Ma County one week after Bai Xiu Ming's departure. When he arrived, Li Long was in the large courtyard playing with Mingming and Haohao.

Yesterday, an antique collector came to the purchasing station; this time, the person didn't seem to be probing, spending fifteen thousand yuan to buy that set of gold-plated horse tack, and additionally purchasing several pieces of ancient jade.

This marked a major breakthrough for Li Long's antique business, recovering all the money previously spent on acquiring antiques and earning several times over in profit.

Li Long gave Sun Jia Qiang a fifty-yuan bonus, which Sun Jia Qiang felt too embarrassed to accept.

It was Gu Gu Bo Yuan who told him to accept it with peace of mind, saying that he deserved this money.

The division of labor at the purchasing station was very clear: Gu Gu Bo Yuan was responsible for buying, Li Long for selling, and Sun Jia Qiang for miscellaneous tasks.

Jia Jia Tianlong did not accompany Dong Zhi Chao and Bai Lanlan on this trip—he had already done everything humanly possible last time. He had made the introductions and established the connections and favors, but Dong Zhi Chao and the others were unwilling to form a long-term cooperative relationship.

Of course, last time it was Jia Jia Tianlong who had earnestly requested Dong Zhi Chao and the others to come, so the initiative lay with Dong Zhi Chao.

This time, Dong Zhi Chao had actually hoped Jia Jia Tianlong would come along, since Jia Jia Tianlong had a good relationship with Li Long; having such a person nearby meant that if negotiations went poorly, there would at least be room for maneuver.

However, Jia Jia Tianlong's mind was now entirely on his wife; although she hadn't yet gone into labor, her belly was very large now, marking a critical period, so he had declined.

Dong Zhi Chao could only come with Bai Lanlan. Upon arriving at the purchasing station, Gu Gu Bo Yuan knew they had come to buy seedless melon seeds.

He understood the whole story from beginning to end, but Gu Gu Bo Yuan did not directly send the two away; instead, he sent Sun Jia Qiang to fetch Li Long.

When Li Long arrived at the purchasing station, Dong Zhi Chao enthusiastically stepped forward to shake hands; Li Long could not bring himself to rebuff someone wearing a smiling face, so he invited them to the guest room in the rear courtyard.

Knowing they were there to purchase melon seeds led to the conversation at the beginning.

Dong Zhi Chao was an old cadre who had once worked in a state-owned enterprise; in his view, coming here to beg Li Long was already a huge concession, and his own pride prevented him from making further concessions, so he looked toward Bai Lanlan.

"Comrade Li Long, we truly hope to be able to buy your melon seeds," Bai Lanlan said sincerely. "We are willing to raise the price; how about three yuan per kilogram? We will also cover the freight, and our purchase volume is very large."

"I really have no stock here," Li Long thought to himself, "I'm speaking the truth; why won't you believe me?"

"Three fifty!" Bai Lanlan gritted her teeth; this price had been discussed with Dong Zhi Chao before they came and was the highest price the roasted snack factory could offer.

"Three fifty would be acceptable, but I truly have no stock on hand. If you want it, you'll have to wait until autumn. Moreover, I've already agreed with Manager Bai that they have priority rights. If they also offer three fifty, I will prioritize selling the autumn seedless melon seeds to them."

With Jia Jia Tianlong absent, Li Long was now strictly talking business, showing no regard for friendship—not that there was much friendship to begin with.

Back at the guesthouse, Dong Zhi Chao kept his brows furrowed; after thinking for a while, he suddenly asked Bai Lanlan:

"Lanlan, what do you think if our factory researches a machine that can flatten the melon seeds, then we flatten the purchased seeds before roasting them?"

"We research it?" Bai Lanlan asked with some surprise. "Our technical department only researches how to improve the flavor and shelf life of melon seeds; we have no experience in this area. If we recruit new people, starting from scratch will definitely increase costs; it would be best to outsource the research to a machinery factory, but the cost..."

Yes, the issue of cost was unavoidable.

Before coming, they had calculated that the highest limit price for purchasing seedless melon seeds in Northern Xinjiang was three fifty, after all, they still had to transport them back, and the freight costs were considerable.

If they outsourced the machines and brought them back to the factory, they would definitely need to increase manpower, electricity expenses, and time costs.

They were unclear about how these melon seeds were flattened, and it was uncertain whether such a machine could even be developed.

If Li Long were in Dong Zhi Chao's position, he would have many methods; these had been verified in later generations and were extremely effective, but this belonged to dimensional reduction warfare, something many people in this era simply could not conceive.

Li Long remembered a very famous breeding case from later generations.

North of Northern Xinjiang, in the region where that Golden Mountain was located, the state provided a support project for breeding swan geese, with five million yuan in funding support for this single project.

However, results had to be demonstrated; that is, for the five million the state invested each year, you had to present one hundred thousand swan geese during the state's inspection and acceptance.

Someone took an interest in this project, worked at it for two years, and then gave up.

One hundred thousand swan geese—how large an enclosure would be needed, how much labor, plus feed, space, and so on; moreover, since this area was in the north, wild birds carrying viruses occasionally flew over from abroad to the north and northwest, and a single outbreak of avian influenza could wipe everything out.

Just as this project seemed destined to fail, a young man came and took it over.

He succeeded.

The method was very simple: at the beginning of the year, he bought two hundred thousand swan goose chicks and distributed them to farming households in a county, signing contracts stating these swan geese were given to these people for free; however, when the state conducted its inspection and acceptance, these grown swan geese needed to be driven to the breeding farm he had built for the state's verification.

After the inspection and acceptance, these swan geese were not returned to the farming households.

Each household received fifty swan goose chicks; raised until autumn, the survival rate could reach seventy or eighty percent, so the breeding task of one hundred thousand was easily completed.

The young man also had an arrangement with each household: if the farmers ate the geese themselves, he wouldn't interfere, but if they wanted to sell them, he would buy them back, at prices ranging from fifty to seventy per bird.

The young man only built a breeding farm and then set up a swan goose processing factory.

Over the course of a year, aside from the state's subsidy project, just this swan goose processing factory earned quite a lot—these were purely traditionally raised, counted as green products, and were very popular.

The authorities knew this was taking a shortcut, yet they did not stop it—after all, this achieved two goals with one stroke: it bred swan geese and also drove the courtyard economy of the farming households; as long as the more than one hundred thousand swan geese actually existed each year and the effect was achieved, that was enough.

Later, this model was also adopted in the Fourth Small Team; the upper authorities raised chickens in the form of cooperatives, distributing forty half-grown hens to each farming household, with the cooperative buying back the eggs at one yuan per egg—but eggs from outside could not be passed off as their own.

However, a deposit of one thousand yuan had to be paid, which was rather annoying.

But regardless, at least there were eggs for their own consumption, after all, eggs from breeding farms were completely different from those produced by farming households themselves.

There was even a funny incident: when someone fell ill, people from the Fourth Small Team went to visit, and thinking temporarily of buying native eggs for their nutritional value at a supermarket near the hospital, they discovered upon purchase that the label on the eggs looked so familiar—weren't these the eggs their own households produced?

Hey! Selling an egg to the cooperative for one yuan, only to buy it back for three yuan—what a huge loss!

Speaking of which, if Li Long were Dong Zhi Chao, he would be more generous: simply find farming households planting seedless melon seeds in the county or city where the roasted snack factory is located, sign contracts, provide the machines to them free of charge, and then buy back all the processed seedless melon seeds.

Raising the price slightly, the melon farmers would definitely be willing to process them; however, firstly, Dong Zhi Chao did not know how these seedless melon seeds were flattened, and secondly, he lacked this kind of thinking—giving machines to melon farmers for free? How could that be possible?

Conceding benefits is not done this way!

Dong Zhi Chao had no other choice; he and Bai Lanlan toured several nearby county towns but could not find any flat-mouthed seedless melon seeds; last year, the planting area for seedless melon seeds in Northern Xinjiang was small, and although it was larger this year, it was clearly not yet the purchasing season.

They could only return and think of another solution. Bai Lanlan wanted to persuade Dong Zhi Chao to come earlier in autumn; obviously, if they did not come this autumn, the market that the roasted snack factory could occupy would inevitably be encroached upon by the food company where Bai Xiu Ming worked.

There was no way for this to be a win-win situation; it was a zero-sum game—if you didn't enter, someone else would.

But Dong Zhi Chao had worked for so many years and had been relatively successful throughout, cultivating an obstinate and self-opinionated character that made him unable to listen to advice.

Li Long, having lived two lives, had many successful cases in his mind, but he did not actively transform these cases into practical actions; apart from what he was currently doing, even those steps were pushed forward gradually by circumstances.

Those cases served at most as memories, or perhaps, at some moment when forced by necessity with no other option, he might have a sudden inspiration and dredge one up to use.

Essentially, it was a peasant mindset, combined with little formal schooling; although his vision was broader than that of people today, it was still limited.

After seeing Dong Zhi Chao off, Li Long continued living his "contentious-with-no-one" life.

The wheat season had finally begun; outside the residential area, vast stretches of golden wheat fields were already being harvested. This year, the Fourth Squad had at least eight tractors equipped with harvesters rushing off in all directions to reap the extensive wheat lands.

Zooming out further, from the regimental companies in the north and the mountain-adjacent villages in the south, extending west to Shicheng and east to the outskirts of Wucheng, small four-wheel tractors pulling harvesters cut down swath after swath of wheat, stacking them neatly.

The owners of these lands, wearing straw hats or headscarves, tied the wheat into bundles using straw ropes or reed belts; behind them came horse carts, donkey carts, or small four-wheel tractors, where people lifted the wheat bundles onto the vehicles to be transported to the threshing grounds, piled high by each household, taking turns to thresh.

At this time, going into the countryside, one could see the scene of tractors rumbling loudly as they threshed on the grounds, or the sight of winnowing.

Many popsicle vendors would wander around the various threshing grounds at this time—threshing and winnowing were arduous tasks that required bright sunshine and wind; under such conditions, people either ate melon or bought popsicles.

Watermelons had not yet arrived in large quantities, but popsicles were quite good; often, those threshing would buy ten, twenty, or even dozens of popsicles at a time, willing to spend a few jiao when it came to this.

Popsicle vendors especially liked going to the Fourth Squad; although the distance was far, the people there were truly generous and wealthy, and after visiting the seven or eight threshing grounds across the Fourth Squad's three residential points, a box of popsicles would be basically empty.

When the wheat was cut and threshing began, Li Long returned once to the Fourth Squad.

His father, mother, and eldest sister-in-law were all at the threshing ground; the Lu family across the way was there too. This year, the main workforce at the threshing grounds consisted of the elderly and women—Li Jianguo and Lu Yingming had first cut and brought their own wheat back to the grounds before heading out to help others harvest.

Li Long's tractor was stationed at his elder brother's place; Li Li Qing Xia and the Lu family's Tie Tou took turns driving it to pull an iron roller for threshing—the reason for using an iron roller was that within dozens of kilometers around the Fourth Squad, except for going to Nanshan, one could not find stones to make stone rollers.

Of course, another reason was that people here were accustomed to using local materials; since stone rollers were unavailable, they made do with iron ones.

Having never seen such a thing only proved that local customs differed.

Li Long wanted to stay and help with threshing and winnowing, but the Li family sent him away; when families worked at the threshing grounds, the number of people was about the same, two or three per household, gathering together to thresh and pick out chaff.

Firstly, Li Long had not done this kind of work for many years and his skills were rusty; secondly, the Li family already had three people at the grounds—although Du Chunfang usually did not do much work, picking out wheat straw was no problem for her; she could not winnow the wheat, but handling the sweeping of fallen grains was fine—

Winnowing and sweeping fallen grains meant that after the wheat kernels were pressed out of the ears and piled up, one had to wait for a windy moment to blow away the husks; during the tossing, the wheat kernels fell down while the husks, also called wheat tails, were blown aside by the wind.

This usually required two people working together: one person tossed the wheat, while another waited nearby with a large broom made of Achnatherum grass; after the toss, just as the winnower scooped up some wheat kernels to throw again, the sweeper had to quickly and lightly brush the surface of the fallen grains to sweep away any unwinnowed kernels, wheat heads, and other impurities like small stones.

The sweeping force could not be too strong, needing to float lightly over the wheat pile; sweeping too lightly would fail to remove impurities, but sweeping too heavily was even worse, as it would sweep away the already winnowed wheat kernels, causing grain loss.

Of course, the swept-away wheat tails and wheat heads would undergo secondary winnowing for further screening.

At this moment, the advantage of the large Achnatherum grass broom became evident.

However, Li Long was not proficient at either winnowing or sweeping fallen grains, and since the family did not need him for this work, they sent him back to the county town; they did not lack one more person.

After returning, Li Long stayed at home for a while; Gu Gu Bo Yuan and Sun Jia Qiang were looking after the procurement station; during this busy farming season, quite a few people still came to the station every day, but the amount of goods collected was less, as medicinal herbs would need another half-month of accumulation to fill a truck.

Animal skins were even scarcer, as this was not the hunting season; everyone was busy in the fields harvesting wheat.

The only item being collected in relatively large quantities was dried mushrooms—although morels were gone, black tiger palm mushrooms had emerged, and it was their peak season.

Huang Lei came twice more, each time hauling several hundred kilograms of dried mushrooms from Li Long, leaving behind a substantial amount of money, of course.

There was another piece of good news at the procurement station: the telephone had been installed.

Although calls still required multiple transfers, at least one could now make and receive calls.

Li Long spent a day at the procurement station, calling each of his contacts one by one, including Factory Director Du, Director Qian, as well as Jia Jia Tianlong and Zhao Hui from the mouth of the valley.

After finishing, Li Long, eager at home, first went to the market to buy a sheep, split it in half, and took some rice and flour to the livestock team's station.

Then, early the next day, he headed into the mountains.

Passing through Passing Qingshuihe village, he saw that they were also threshing there; branches on roadside trees suitable for making poles had been cut off, and piles of bark stacked at some doorways must have been shaved off while making the poles.

Li Long did not go to Meng Hai's place, but he could guess that the Meng family courtyard was definitely piled high with many poles.

Entering the mountains, passing through the outer layers of bare earth and rock hills or those covered only with sparse vegetation, once the mountain vegetation became dense, Li Long felt the summer heat on his body dissipate instantly.

He first went to Ha Li Mu's winter camp, finding no one living there; Ha Li Mu and the others had not yet descended the mountain.

Quite a few clumps of earth and leaves had fallen into the sheep-washing pool, but Li Long did not clean them out; this thing would only be used next year, so he would clean it then.

Brother Brother Yushanjiang's winter camp had similarly seen no changes; no one had come, and the house was practically new, so presumably, when Brother Brother Yushanjiang and the others returned, they would be very happy to see it.

Returning to his own wooden cabin, there were no changes there either.

Since the last time Xie Youcai was captured and taken away, the door had been locked; now, the only addition was some paw prints on the wooden floor at the entrance.

The lock had not been damaged, and there were no footprints nearby, so it seemed few people had come here.

Li Long shouldered his gun and went to the hot spring once more.

For some reason, no animals had visited the hot spring area for a long time; Li Long looked around and found not a single paw print or hoof print.

The hot spring water was excellent, with mist drifting above the pool, and the pool Li Long had repaired was in normal condition.

Li Long wondered whether he should bring his family here to soak.

Since his father and mother did not want to come, he could bring Gu Xiaoxia, Mingming, and Haohao instead; soaking and playing here would be quite nice.

Anyway, the Education Bureau had nothing major at this time; the semi-annual summary was over, schools were on holiday, and they were relatively idle.

Alright, it was decided.

After circling his familiar areas several times, Li Long still surprisingly failed to encounter a single worthy animal.

Helplessly, he took a gunny sack and went to pick black tiger palm mushrooms.

There was no choice but to use gunny sacks because wherever one found them, there were so many; a single patch could yield ten to twenty kilograms, which was why the procurement station could collect several hundred kilograms of dried goods every few days.

There were simply too many; they were large in size, dried well, grew in patches, and had a longer growing season than morels, so naturally, there were many.

When Li Long returned, his jeep carried two gunny sacks of black tiger palm mushrooms, even though he had not included the roots, having shaved them all off; additionally, there was a large bag of wild strawberries, which also had a long growing season, possibly appearing on sunny slopes by mid-June and remaining ripe on shaded slopes until the end of July.

As he exited the mountains, Li Long heard wolf howls from within, making him hesitate again; should he bring the children into the mountains? If entering, should they stay only at the wooden cabin? If going to the hot spring, would it be dangerous for the women after they bathed?

Li Long was still hesitating, but before the weekend even arrived, Meng Hai rushed to the county town to tell Li Long that Brother Brother Yushanjiang and the others had descended the mountain.

Why so early this year? (End of chapter)